HOW-TO:Modify automatic watch and resume points

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▶ HOW-TO:Modify automatic watch and resume points

This page describes three advancedsettings.xml settings that can be used to modify when "watched" and "resume" marks are saved. These settings can also be used to prevent automatically saving watched and resume points. A watched point records if a video has been watched or not. A resume point records where in a video file playback has stopped, so it can be resumed later.


Steps

If you don't already have an advancedsettings.xml file, it's very simple to create. Kodi uses this file for advanced settings and features that normal users shouldn't modify without first knowing what they do, as well as for experimental features.

1 Create a plain text file (no rich text formatting, don't use .doc, etc) and save it as advancedsettings.xml. Make sure that the file extension is ".xml" and not ".txt" or ".xml.txt".
2 Cut and paste this into your new plain text file:
<advancedsettings>
  <video>
    <playcountminimumpercent>90</playcountminimumpercent>
    <ignoresecondsatstart>180</ignoresecondsatstart>
    <ignorepercentatend>8</ignorepercentatend>
  </video>
</advancedsettings>
3 Change the values between the tags to fit your situation. See #Settings explained for details.
4 Save this file in your userdata folder:

The Userdata folder is a subfolder of the Kodi Data Folder and is located as shown in the table below.

Operating system Userdata Folder
Android Android/data/org.xbmc.kodi/files/.kodi/userdata/ (see note)
iOS /private/var/mobile/Library/Preferences/Kodi/userdata/
LibreELEC /storage/.kodi/userdata/
Linux ~/.kodi/userdata/
macOS /Users/<your_user_name>/Library/Application Support/Kodi/userdata/
Nvidia Shield (SMB) smb://<nvidiashieldurl>/internal/Android/data/org.xbmc.kodi/files/.kodi/userdata
OSMC /home/osmc/.kodi/userdata/
tvOS /private/var/mobile/Library/Preferences/Kodi/userdata/
Windows %APPDATA%\Kodi\userdata
Windows Portable <Install location chosen by you>\portable_data\userdata\
Windows via Microsoft Store %LOCALAPPDATA%\Packages\XBMCFoundation.Kodi_4n2hpmxwrvr6p\LocalCache\Roaming\Kodi\
Windows Xbox %LOCALAPPDATA%\Packages\XBMCFoundation.Kodi_4n2hpmxwrvr6p\LocalCache\Roaming\Kodi\
Note: In some Android setups the path may be slightly different to the one stated above.


Note: If you have an existing advancedsettings.xml file, make sure the <video></video> tags, and settings we'll add between them, are between the main <advancedsettings></advancedsettings> tags.

Note: A file can be marked both as watched and as being in-progress/resumable. When this happens, either because a watched video was rewatched partially, or because the video was watched between 90 and 92 percent (by default), most Kodi interface skins will show the resume mark rather than the watched mark. However, since the file is still marked has having been watched once, then using functions such as "hide watch" will still hide the video, etc.

You can clear resume marks by toggling watched/unwatched in the context menu.


Settings explained

advancedsettings.xml tag what it does
<playcountminimumpercent>90</playcountminimumpercent> How much must be viewed to be marked as watched

Since a lot of people don't watch credits at the end of a movie or TV show, this value allows us to skip those parts while still automatically marking something as watched. This setting is defined in a percentage with the default being 90 percent.

<ignoresecondsatstart>180</ignoresecondsatstart> Time to ignore at the start of a video before making a resume point

This setting allows someone to start a video, only watch a couple of minutes, and then stop it without recording a resume point. This allows someone to do things such as check to see if the video is one they've seen or not, or to not mark a video if all you have seen is just the opening credits, etc. This setting is defined in seconds with the default being 180 seconds. For whole minutes simply multiply by 60.

<ignorepercentatend>8</ignorepercentatend> Percent at the end of a video to ignore to prevent making a resume point

This setting prevents a resume point from being recorded if it is within a certain percentage at the end of the video. The logic here is similar to <playcountminimumpercent>, where most people will probably want to skip end credits and not have a resume point made, as they are done watching the video. The setting is defined in a percentage in relation to the end of the video, and the default is 8 percent. For an hour movie this would ignore a little under 5 minutes from the end of the video. Note that setting it to 0 will always create a resume point even when the video is completely finished.



It is important to understand that there are two different functions being adjusted with these settings-

  1. Resume Point, and
  2. Mark Watched.

Their interaction with each other is displayed in a bar graph format using the default settings on a 60 minute video.

Resume Points01.JPG

Examples

More agressive settings

This example also prevents the small gap between being marked as watched and still resumable.

advancedsettings.xml
<advancedsettings>
  <video>
    <playcountminimumpercent>85</playcountminimumpercent>
    <ignoresecondsatstart>60</ignoresecondsatstart>
    <ignorepercentatend>15</ignorepercentatend>
  </video>
</advancedsettings>


Prevent watch and resume points from being saved

If you don't want watched or resume points/marks saved automatically then you can use these values. Since it is impossible to playback a video at 101 percent, no mark is made. Watched marks can still be manually recorded using W on a keyboard, the context menu, or an add-on such as Add-on:Trakt. This only prevents new marks from being automatically added and won't remove existing marks in the database. To remove existing marks you can use W on a keyboard or the context menu.

advancedsettings.xml
<advancedsettings>
  <video>
    <playcountminimumpercent>101</playcountminimumpercent>
    <ignorepercentatend>101</ignorepercentatend>
  </video>
</advancedsettings>


See also

  • Backup - How to backup the video library metadata, including watched and resume points, and how to make sure Kodi includes those watched/resume points when importing to a new Kodi install.
  • Syncing and sharing - Contains info on how to sync and save watched status marks across multiple devices and programs.
  • Video playback



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